Computer infrastructure services providers supply dynamically scalable and abstracted resources as services over the Internet, as well as maintain computers on which users can run applications and store data. Computer infrastructure services providers locate the computers that comprise such infrastructures in one or more facilities that are commonly referred to as data centers. A small data center may occupy a room or a floor of a building, while a large data center may occupy several floors or an entire building. A typical data center may house many computers, such as servers, along with other components (e.g., backup power generators, uninterruptible power supplies, power distribution units, etc.) that support the resources of the data center. Data centers also are built in non-traditional ways, such as within shipping containers or on boats.
Power is a commodity that is essential to running a data center. Power also is the most constrained resource that is used in a data center. The power consumption of components within a data center varies with the utilization of the components. For example, as a server becomes more heavily loaded, it consumes more power. To avoid unexpected failures, it is thus necessary to provision sufficient power to drive every component of a data center, such as servers, at full utilization. However, because all components of a data center rarely operate at full utilization at all times, a data center typically will significantly over-provision power.
Over-provisioning power that is not used efficiently results in a cost increase for all resources within a data center. For example, a server that remains idle or that experiences a small load will nevertheless require a significant power budget in case its load suddenly increases. Increasing utilization of the power delivered to a data center can significantly reduce the cost of operating the data center.
While it is possible to operate individual resources in a data center at levels that are near or over capacity, a sudden utilization increase of some resources may drive overall power consumption beyond the data center's available supply. As a result, the data center may need to shut down certain resources or some resources may experience sudden failures. Resources that are shut down or fail unexpectedly prevent the computer infrastructure services provider from providing services to customers and can cause data loss or corruption. As a result of these considerations, on the one hand, a computer infrastructure services provider who is trying to maximize power utilization may oversubscribe power of resources to minimize costs, but risks having resources shut down when power consumption exceeds supply. On the other hand, the computer infrastructure services provider instead may over provision power, which increases power costs. The problem is further complicated by the fact that external environmental factors, such as an increase in temperature, may cause an increase in power consumption, such as by requiring additional cooling capacity to be brought online. Therefore, there is a need for improved systems and methods that provide power management for facilities, such as data centers.